Let’s see, Gene Collier yesterday in a chat actually fielded a Pitt question.

jimmy_g: The devastating injury losses that the Pitt basketball team has suffered may be too much to overcome. How do you see this affecting their remaining season?

Gene Collier: Negatively and substantially. With Cook and Fields out, 30 percent of the scoring is gone, not to mention their experience. Fields ran the show. Now the show goes on without a front man. Fields could return by March. DuJuan Blair has broad shoulders, but not this broad.

You may sense a theme as Andy Katz at ESPN.com had his own chat (Insider subs.).

Fo Sheezy, Pittsburgh: Andy: Let’s cut to the chase. With the injury bug in full force, what can we expect of Pitt the rest of the regular season? The Panthers looked like a top-10 team after the Duke game, but the Fields injury is an absolute killer. He is the best player on that team, and he plays the most important position. So here is my 2-part question…(1) Where do you see Pitt finishing in the Big East? and (2) What have you heard as far as the time table for a possible return for Levance Fields? Thanks!!

Andy Katz: Is that your real name?

Well, Fo, I can tell you that the world didn’t end at Pitt. Nope, there is no Chicken Little roaming around Petersen. Jamie Dixon is still very optimistic after Ronald Ramon had 10 assists and no turnovers. I totally disagree with Doug Gottlieb, who said Pitt is going to the NIT now. The Panthers will win games, especially at home. The Big East, save Marquette and Georgetown, is even and there are plenty of games to be had. As for Fields, think more Padgett than Cook. The surgery went well and the feeling is that he will be back possibly during the Big East season instead of in the postseason.

Finally there was the Ray Fittipaldo chat today.

7_man_rotation: Do you think Pitt can go .500 in Big East play and how many Big East games do you think they need to win to get into the NCAA tournament?

Ray Fittipaldo: I think if Pitt goes 9-9 in the Big East the Panthers would be giving themselves a chance. That would give them a 21-10 record entering the Big East tournament. If Pitt wins one game in New York I think they would be assured of a spot.

Pitt cannot have any letdowns against teams like Rutgers, Seton Hall and St. John’s this season because beating the upper echelon teams in the league will be difficult with Cook and Fields. I’ll predict they’ll play two games under .500 without Fields. But depending upon when he comes back they could still make a run a berth in the tournament.

needdepth: What are our chances against Nova? Can we match up?

Ray Fittipaldo: Villanova is not a big and strong team. Jay Wright has some nice guards and small forward types, but Sam Young and DeJuan should have a big edge on the inside. I think it will be a matter of whether Pitt can contain Scottie Reynolds. He’s Villanova’s best player and the Panthers will need to keep him in check if they want to have a chance.

The ‘Nova game scares the hell out of me because ‘Nova’s guards are slashers and penetrators. If (when?) they get past Ramon and Benjamin, they can be the ones that will get Blair and Young in foul trouble.

With the loss of players for Pitt, they fell in meaningless power rankings. ESPN.com dropped them to 15.

Like aging, coaching ain’t for sissies. Down two starters, Jamie Dixon is now coaching on the fly just as the Big East schedule dawns with a Sunday date at Villanova. One idea — get the ball in DeJuan Blair’s hands more. The sensational freshman forward took just six shots in a win against Lafayette.

And yet, for whatever reason, they have Dayton behind Pitt at #16.

Luke Winn at SI.com dropped Pitt, but has them at the top of of his “On the Cusp, Tier 1.”

Pittsburgh (11-1): The Panthers’ ugly loss at Dayton normally wouldn’t be enough to knock them out of the rankings. They do, after all, have a win over Duke on their resume. But with Mike Cook and Levance Fields now out of the equation, Pitt no longer resembles the scary team we saw at the Garden before Christmas.

I don’t have a problem with these rankings.

Just to recap the local stories on Lamar Patterson committing to Pitt.

The commitment fills a top recruiting priority for the Panthers, who were in the market for a wing player for the Class of 2009.

“I think he will be a great addition to the program,” [McCaskey Coach Steve] Powell said. “He’s a very skilled player. He has excellent size. He’s an excellent shooter. He can handle the ball. He has good court vision. He runs the floor. He can create off the dribble.

“I think he will do very well in coach Dixon’s system. Pitt’s players are very physical and very aggressive. That’s what he has to work on, his overall physical strength. But he has a year-and-a-half to get that. He comes from good stock. The work ethic is there. The gene pool is there. I can’t see him doing anything but having success.”

The Duke game had a big impact on his decision.

Patterson said he thought Pitt was the school he would attend for a while, but Pitt’s victory against Duke last week cemented the decision.

“The way they came back that showed me a lot,” Patterson said. “And when Mike Cook got hurt, coach Dixon was right by his side. I liked that.”

From the Lancaster papers it was about Pitt fitting him and his family.

“He just told me after practice today that he’s going to Pittsburgh,” Red Tornado coach Steve Powell said Friday afternoon. “He had a big smile on his face, so they must have made a great impression on him.

“It’s an excellent program. I think Lamar will fit right into Coach (Jamie) Dixon’s system.”

A 6-foot-5, 220-pound junior, Patterson has helped lead McCaskey to an unprecedented three straight L-L League boys’ championships. Versatile enough to play guard, forward or center, Patterson leads the Lancaster-Lebanon League in scoring (24.4).

“I like Coach Dixon, and the facility played a big part in it,” said Patterson, who expects to major in computer science at Pitt. “My mom wanted me to stay (close to home), so I wanted to do it for her.”

Patterson was just happy to take care of the matter early.

“I wanted to do it now,” he said. “Now I won’t have to worry about it. I can just focus on playing my last two years at McCaskey and getting ready for the next level.”…

“I was thinking about it all day,” he said. “It was on my mind before the game. I finally decided I’d heard enough from everybody else, and Pitt was the best place for me to go.”

Apparently, though, some don’t like his game.

Realizing his shots weren’t falling, Patterson decided to concentrate on setting up his teammates and crashing the boards. He did well on both counts, racking up eight assists and 10 boards.

But every time he passed on an open look to hit a teammate, you could hear some muttering coming from the home stands.

It’s ridiculous.

Reads like he will be an excellent addition.

Okay, late watching on this. So, three years to the day, Pitt suffered its only non-con loss at the Pete since it opened. Yes, the Bucknell game. What were the odds that Pitt would play another Patriot League team on the same day?

Watching in the first half, the thing that immediately occurred to me was that the offense looks fine, but the defense will be a big issue. Benjamin especially. He continually cheats to the basket either to try and help or be in position to get a rebound. He was the biggest issue to me in leaving his man open on the perimeter for Lafayette to get open threes. Either he didn’t take it seriously or he had a little too much confidence in his own ability to recover and getting back. It wasn’t happening.

Interestingly, while Ramon may have been the de facto point guard, he wasn’t bringing the ball up everytime. It seemed that Pitt was trying to get others to do it. May not be a bad idea since Ramon struggles bringing it up and is susceptible to traps and the press.

The only thing I can figure as to why Pitt played so far off the players on the perimeter was that they were preparing for Villanova. It’s not like Lafayette has guards who could take Pitt off the dribble. Villanova with Reynolds and Fisher, however…

That said, Lafayette was taking and making some hellaciously deep threes. Pitt really struggles with the screens. Sam Young does not like to rotate out on them.

Think the Pitt coaches worked over Biggs on taking shots a lot closer to the basket? No threes attempted by him this time, and the deepest shot he took was maybe a 10 foot baseline jumper. That said, it was hard to judge his game considering the lack of size by Lafayette. It allowed him a lot of chances for easy put backs.

There were 13 turnovers by Pitt. Not terribly surprising in the first game without Fields. That Young had 5 (all in the first half) and Ramon had 0 is something of a surprise.

Ramon also had 10 assists along with some excellent shooting — 11 points on 3-4 (all 3s) shooting.

Hopefully the game will also serve as a bit of a confidence builder for Wanamaker. Shot 2-3 for 5 points. He had lots of 2s. Assists, rebounds and turnovers. And 1 steal. Big concern he might be a bit wound for going home to Philly this Saturday.

It was a record number of 3s made against Pitt, but despite that Pitt got the win.

Near the end of the game, Bob Sanders actually clarified the football player stuff. It isn’t necessarily to play them like Cinci was forced to do. It was to have a few extra bodies for practice. That actually makes a lot more sense.

The most noticeable thing at the end of the game. No Gary McGhee. I’m guessing that Coach Dixon has determined that he must redshirt him.

Hard to judge a lot from this game, other than the fact that the team needed a regrouping/patsy game to get used to playing without Fields as well as Cook. That said, it was nice at the end when it was a complete laugher to see the players smiling and being highly amused at Cassin Diggs picking up a charging foul in the final couple minutes.

Pitt’s second half shooting was astoundingly accurate. Pitt shot well in the first half at 15-27, but was an amazing 20-25 (8-9 on threes) in the second half. Putting it this way, Pitt’s effective FG % in the second half was an astounding 96%.

Overall, Pitt looked, played and the numbers reflected a much better effort and team in the second half.

Still don’t know what it means for this Saturday and the rest of the Big East slate.

Like it or not, the whole conference supremacy crap that goes on forces us to pull for teams that at times we wouldn’t cross the street to spit on them.

Having said that, West Virginia absolutely humiliated the Oklahoma Sooners with a 20 point win, 48-28. I admit it. I was cheering for them. If for no other reason, then the whole Big East bashing crap goes away for another year.
Everyone was picking against them — for good reason.

The only downside, and I heard it near the end of the game, the excuse/revisionist history will be that Pitt beat WVU because Pat White got hurt early in the game. White wasn’t playing well when he got hurt.

Seeing Owen Schmitt  break down on national TV actually moved me. Well, except for the whole, “I love this state,” part